I am not a TV person.Haven’t had one since I lived at my parents house when I was 17.I think the programming is mostly shallow useless time wasting fluff or violence.I know there are exceptions…those exceptions still do not feel like they balance out the utter crap.
I realize that I am out of the mainstream when it comes to discussing shows that have been popular for either the past twenty years or the past two years.I asked JC what that show was called with all the good questions and he shook his head and said “Jeopardy”.I guess that is common knowledge to most people.Wouldn’t that be a great question to have on that show?See if the contestants could remember the name of the show?
Where we are currently parked with our home on wheels, we have the misfortune of having TV reception.Our camper came with a TV as standard equipment.It is a built in thing that lives in our living room.Luckily we rarely have reception.I love the places that have no phone, TV or internet reception.
JC has been obliging enough to wear headphones so I don’t have to hear about bladder control drugs and the explosive diarrhea I could get from taking an anti-depressant.I also don’t have to hear what now passes for “news”.I pass through and glance at the thing every once in a while. He is there with his headphones on watching and listening.What I see only makes me that much more grateful for not being part of the human/black box relationship.
There was some “reality” show on when I passed by the other evening.Some half-dressed young woman was crying about something that didn’t go right on their island.I laughed at her belief that what she was experiencing on that island was actually reality.
But, Sunday night I passed by and saw Jane Goodall on the screen.I immediately unplugged JC’s headphones and found out that she was going to be one of three segments on 60 minutes.
I think I actually sat down in a chair to watch it. Someone should have caught that rare moment on film.
(Here is a bit of personal background:HOME has been a constant holy grail for me.I test everything and everyone with my litmus test of “does this feel like HOME”?
I am like Dorothy.There is no place like HOME and it has been inside me all along. I never left HOME.
Yea yea, whatever….I still have my HOME tinted litmus paper handy at all times.)
So, from my perspective, all three segments of the 60 minutes show were about HOME. (It's like Woody Allen thinking everything he hears relates to anti-semitism....)
The first 60 minutes segment was about the folks in Silicon Valley who once earned six figures and are now unemployed.They are collecting recyclables from people’s trash, selling their McMansions and living in everything from stranger’s attics to their cars. What they once assumed would always be their HOME got pulled out from under them.This is exactly why I never wanted to get used to some fancy high price lifestyle.I always wanted to know that how I live was sustainable in any economy and in all situations.I want to always be happy with few material goods and I want to know the ins and outs of surviving during apocalyptic situations.You want to live near me if the shit hits the fan in this country.We would survive just fine.
The next segment was about a very popular automobile TV show in Britain.It is called Gear something or other.One of the hosts was interviewed.The big bruiser guy was talking about caravans (that is Europeans call rv trailers).He said, “Oh yes, just what I want to do, go out in the freezing rain and live in a metal box parked in a field.With Americans it is different.You Americans like that kind of thing.”
Hmmm, here we are with bright sunshine parked in the national forest in the metal box we call HOME….and loving it.
young JG
Then, Jane Goodall appeared.Can I just say, I LOVE this woman.First, her beautiful relationship with the chimps as a twenty something non-academic untrained scientist…then her visit with them as a seventy something spokesperson for all living beings.The forest habitat that serves as HOME to the chimps is being chipped away at.Jane points to once forested hillsides that are now barren.She is delighted to find that many of her old chimp friends are still alive in the forest and have children and grandchildren.But, their population is a fraction of what it once was and she blames habitat destruction, killing them for bushmeat and killing them to steal their babies for the exotic animal trade.
I feel for these chimps who just want to be HOME…with their familiar surroundings, family, friends and food.
It is really so little to ask.
I cried tears of gratitude for Jane Goodall's clear compassionate voice.And for just a moment I was glad that the black box brought Jane right into our living room.
I have been studying the road atlas so that I can figure out the details of our winter plans.I have been reading more of the road atlas than ever before in my life.
And I am shocked.While I have been busy studying those maps in the front, there has been a whole section that I could have been enjoying in the back pages….The Festivals of the USA!
The festival section has lots of pictures and ideas, including:
For the kids!
-Photo of a boy in a kid’s rodeo called Mutton Busting. Kids cling to terrified sheep in a rodeo arena.
-Photo and description of kids in the specially flooded Center St. of Spanish Fork, Utah.The center of town is turned into an artificial pond and is stocked with hundreds of trout.The kids can use their hands or plastic bags to catch a trout and every kid who participates gets to take home a 10 inch trout for their family.
(What better way to teach kids about our connection with the natural world and the other animals in our big animal family)
For the Adults
-Endless rodeos and Renaissance Festivals where you can grab some lamb or a turkey leg and show off your unique human skills.
I actually could not find a single page that did not include some glorification and celebration of violence in our culture…..
I pretty much held my breath in horror as I looked through page after page of “Americana”.As I was reading them to JC he was sure I must be making some of this stuff up…especially when I was reading to him about “Mike the Headless Chicken Festival” in Colorado.I am not kidding.
Finally I let out a sigh of relief when…at the bottom of one page, I got to the National Lentil Festival in Pullman Washington….There was of a guy dressed as a giant brown lentil wearing a baseball cap.Now there is a festival I can get excited about…..Between that and the Gilroy CA garlic festival, they are finally talking my language. (Well truthfully the lentil looks like an M &M and is very corny.....but I am desperate to find a non-violent image in the atlas!)
I like anything that makes me feel like I almost belong in this country.
Today, JC, Bean and I were hiking in the beautiful national forest.About an hour into our hike, a gunshot was fired less than 50 yards from us.Bean came running back to us and I watched the smoke from the gun rise above the bushes just in front of us.We held Bean close and I whistled and shouted so the hunters would stop shooting.They did not answer my whistle or shout, which makes me assume they were hunting illegally.
We turned around and left the area just before getting to our destination on the ridge top.
I came home and looked up the hunting season in New Mexico to see if they were poaching.
Fish and Game….a government agency supported by tax dollars….has a website that is almost as shocking as the Rand McNally Road Atlas.
A few of the “highlights”:
Private land owners are now paid to allow hunters to kill on their land.And the most exciting part is that these private lands are open just in time for killing the world symbol for PEACE (doves)!Here is the news from their website:
New Mexico landowners and the Department of Game and Fish are working together to provide New Mexico hunters more opportunities to pursue game on private land across the state, including more than 102,000 acres available just in time for the Sept. 1 opening of dove season. The 5-year-old program is funded by $4 Habitat Management and Access validations required with every hunting and fishing license. This year, 19 landowners have enrolled in the program to offer public dove hunting. “This program is great for dove hunters because some of the best dove hunting is around water tanks and agricultural fields on private land,” said Aaron Roberts, coordinator of the Open Gate Program. “At the same time, it benefits the landowners by putting some money in their pockets and keeping the birds off their crops.” Participating landowners are paid for allowing hunters or anglers access to their property or for allowing access across their property to landlocked public land. Lease agreements are negotiated individually and can vary according to property descriptions, easements and hunting opportunities. Statewide, landowners have enrolled more than 105,000 acres for dove, quail, turkey, waterfowl, javelina and deer hunting, and some angling.
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Young boy hunter with killed dove.
How I imagine this boy 50 years later........
And more “great news”…..Kids “learn to kill” programs are in full swing.And for you adults who are not satisfied with viewing the glorious Sandhill Crane, you can legally shoot them and carry them home in the trunk of your car.
Applications are due Wednesday, Sept. 8, for 2010-2011 youth waterfowl hunts at Bernardo Wildlife Area and for special-permit sandhill crane hunts. More than 200 youth waterfowl hunts are available at Bernardo and hundreds of special crane permits are available in various areas around the state.
OK, call me a stick in the mud, but I actually think that all land should be considered no hunting unless it is marked as a place that some land owner has decided to allow hunting.Instead most states have strict regulations for exactly how you must post your land if you do not want hunting on it.Is it me or is this backwards?
The NRA works so hard to ensure hunters have the right to go out there and blast away.But what about land owner and hiker’s rights?Private land and National forests are suddenly war zones during hunting seasons across the USA.Most people head to the forest for silence and beauty.The most beautiful time of year for being in the woods, turns into an act of courage (or insanity) if you love hiking.The Fish and Wildlife page reminds those of us who are not hunting to wear bright colors.Right.Hunters never shoot other hunters in bright colors.Right.Hunters always make sure that their target is clearly identified.Right.Hunters are never blurry eyed and hung-over because they never drink on their hunting trips.Right. Hunters are very responsible guys who love following regulations. Right.
All of this reminds me…it is that time of year….time to pull out one of my favorites:
A Holiday Thought.You can find this on our website (www.plantpeacedaily.org) in pdf form to print out or send around:
A Holiday Thought…
Aren’t humans amazing? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.
Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.
So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases.
Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.
Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once-a-year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."
~Revised Preface to Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates~
Maybe I am reading too much these days.I don’t mean the wonderful novels I have been getting from the library.I mean the news…the daily news of what the humans on earth are up to right now.
I am a visual person.Seeing images (today) of stitched up teenage boys who were beaten and sodomized with baseball bats and other weapons because they were having a relationship with another boy breaks my heart.I have tried to shake the images all day.
Yesterday, I was researching non-human primates for a lesson plan that I am writing.The Wikipedia entry for non-human primates is filled with photos and descriptions of the horrors that they are being exposed to in labs across the country.It is information I already knew and photos I have already seen and still, I cannot keep from sobbing when I see the images and look into the eyes of these innocent beings being tortured.
(I am intentionally not showing any images of what is done to these primates)
Hang in there, these different incidents are all related….trust me.
I reconnected with some old friends on the phone yesterday and they were doing what they often did when we used to hang out together: teasing me about my vegan lifestyle choice.They themselves love dogs and wildlife dearly…..but that love does not extend past the arbitrary boundary set up in their heart and mind:Animals we love, Animals we don’t love.They would consider themselves to be the most compassionate and liberal people around and yet they cannot let themselves see beyond the limits of their current circle of compassion.Vegan is a joke to them.It is non-violence and compassion…..not always easy to live up to in this world and certainly not a joke.
I cannot laugh at the suffering of the primates and other animals being tortured in labs and I cannot laugh at the horrific violence against those teenage boys.
Today, I am overwhelmed by the amount of needless suffering on the planet.JC thinks it is hormones.Probably is.But it is also the reality of the human actions on the planet on one of those days when it seeps into some little gate I have left open inside me.
A part of me wants to hide from it all and not engage in any of it….and a part of me wants to do all I can to at least have a smidgen of positive impact on this crazy beautiful painful earth.
I had a thought that if I did not have a computer or a phone, I would never have experienced any of those three incidences. I might have been in blissful ignorance of all of it.
I work hard to leap over what often feels like giant obstacles to find a way to lovingly connect with those who seem like they do not care or want to know what is going on.
A dear friend of mine in Maine often asks me, “How can you keep doing this work?How can you keep witnessing the violence and suffering? Doesn’t it take its toll on you?”
I think it does take its toll.Today, while riding my bike into town to the food coop with the beautiful hills in the background, I cannot shake the images of the teenage boys.I cannot stop mourning.I cry the whole ride into the coop.
This is what happens when you decide you will look directly at life and feel it fully. Or maybe you don't decide to do that....it decides you. You cannot help but witness what is happening.
I sat down to meditate this evening.I had ants in my pants.I could not sit still.I got up and grabbed dog biscuits for Bean and put peanut butter on them and lined them up carefully in front of her.It wasn’t until I had lined them all up that I remembered, “I am supposed to be sitting on that cushion in there with my eyes closed.”I got back to the cushion and forced myself to sit still.And that is when I knew that the antsy-ness was me trying not to feel.I got as still as I could in my body and mind and the tears fell down my cheeks and into in my lap until there are no more tears.And then there is just my breath.And for the first time all day, I was not haunted by the pictures of the boy's black and blue butt cheeks with stitches the whole length of their cheeks and thighs.For the first time all day, I was just exactly where I was sitting.
Sometimes you need healing without even knowing it.....
Sometimes you know it.....
We are camped at the Rio Chama near Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico…Georgia O’Keefe territory.If I glance up from the keyboardright now I look across the wide “river Chama” to the exact rocks that inspired her to take time away from the crowds and her partner in New York and hike and paint.It is not just her.It happens to most people who visit here.They want to shed anything that doesn’t shout: “BEAUTY AND SIMPLICITY”.
People look at our life with our turtle home and often get envious.They picture us hanging out in beautiful places without a care in the world.The reality has been quite different.The reality has felt like an intense marathon since June.We knew that coming west would give us space in more ways than one.I have been longing for both physical and mental space and am getting a few days of that right now.
After an hour of yoga and an hour of meditation and opening my eyes to a place that will never really be captured in photos, the world looks like a better place.
Sometimes everyone needs to get away from the places overpowered by human influence and just rest in what is still left of the most beautiful parts of earth....
A friend of mine in New York City who has a very high profile high powered life, told me that she could never visit these wild places that I do. It is just not her world. I told her that there are different kinds of wild. New York is wild for me. The Rio Chama is not wild, it is home.
It is 4:00 in the morning. I have just been out in the full moon looking for the wounded coyote I met earlier today.
You think I am in the mountains of the west, don’t you?
You don’t know that I am in the closely packed northwestern suburbs of Chicago.
It started this morning when I was in the forest preserve adjacent to this subdivision. The subdivision and the world literally in its backyard are worlds apart. In the subdivision, laundry lines are against the rules, workers spray large amounts of herbicides on even the tiniest plants (I refuse to say weeds) growing up around the barren soil at the base of the landscaped trees. After the original trees were removed, the streets were named after the removed trees and the landscape trees and shrubs were brought in. Deer wander through the yards and eat the expensive landscaped additions. It is a conflict in communities like this across America.
It is very surreal to be where these worlds collide. The suburbs grew around and through the habitat of deer, coyotes, rabbits, skunks and other wild beings. These beings are still here making their way around the strange new land that was once their domain. For the most part they have learned to navigate across busy highways and chemical laden lawns. They have managed to make home wherever they can in the maze of traffic, concrete, houses and people.
I was biking on the trails through the forest preserve with my dog Bean. We crossed over the creek (so blue with lawn chemical run off that Bean won’t drink from it) and turned up into the thicker woods.
One large downed tree made me get off my bike. A second after I swung my leg over the bike seat, I heard what I thought was a dog barking close behind me. I looked back and saw a coyote about twenty feet away. He stared right at me and barked and howled.
For the next hour he followed us at close range on three legs, his fourth leg dangling and wounded. Here is where I wish I had done things differently. I wish I had sat down with Bean and let the coyote come to me so I could help him. My fearful self could not figure out what a coyote was doing in the Chicago suburbs, out in the middle of the day and so close to us. I thought he must be crazed from rabies or drinking polluted water. In fear, I got on my bike and rode fast with Bean at my side. No matter how fast I rode, the coyote stayed with us…running and limping on his three good legs and never taking his eyes off us. When I stopped he stopped and barked and howled. I could tell he was in pain. He followed us as far as the busy road with constant cars in both lanes. When we crossed, he stopped and watched us from the woods.
I got back to my parents house and looked up Chicago coyote on the computer immediately. I was shocked to find out that they are common in these woods. The first story I got in my search was of a coyote walking into a Quiznos sandwich shop in the middle of the city on a very hot day. He walked through the propped open door and wandered straight back to a walk-in cooler and rested there. The people in the restaurant took photos with their phones or finished their sandwiches. Animal control simply came in and put a noose around the neck of the coyote and walked the calm creature out the door to who knows what fate. I found out that coyotes in the city are such a regular occurrence that people complain if they get into the newspaper because it is not really news. Recently, one urban coyote in the news had wandered onto an athletic field at a school and was taken away and “destroyed”. The athletic field bordered the forest.
I called the wildlife rescue center closest to here. He said there was nothing they could do. He also said that the coyote is probably following our scent and most likely trying to get my help. Apparently, because we don’t follow trails, we are easy to follow by our scent. The coyote was probably hit by a car and the rehab folks are not allowed to live trap animals in the forest preserve. I asked if coyotes had any predators in the area and was told that humans were their only predators. The guy on the phone had obviously heard thousands of coyote stories and dully told me that people poison or illegally shoot them or intentionally hit them while driving.
These are coyotes. These are the same animals who are revered enough to be the subject of pseudo-native art that people buy on their vacation in Santa Fe or Scottsdale. My aunt and uncle live a few blocks from here in the same subdivision. Their son lives on the edge of Tucson. When I visited him, I slept outside and listened to the coyotes howling. My cousin and I both love this sound. We love the pure wildness of it. Hearing them howl feels like all is well in the world.
Here, these sacred animals are caught by suburban sprawl and endless traffic. The people I asked about them felt no awe at sharing the land with the coyotes. They spoke of them as annoying pests who threaten their cats and dogs and children (Everyone who shared this with me had NEVER experienced this problem or really knew of anyone who had…an urban myth apparently).
I went back to the woods and searched for the wounded coyote. This time I was determined to help him in some way, anyway. Hours of searching and no coyote.
After sunset a truck drove through the subdivision spraying the air with pesticides meant to take care of the mosquitoes. I had thought that this practice ended with the DDT foggers of our childhoods. As kids, JC and his brothers use to follow the cloud and play in the mist of DDT while they chased the slow moving truck down the street. While I know that this fogger did not spray the now-banned DDT, I also know that what it sprayed tonight, most likely has consequences we will not discover for another 10 years after torturing thousands of animals in labs around the world to determine if it is toxic.
I quickly closed the bedroom windows and wondered where the bats and birds are who would eat the mosquitoes. What have we done with the balance that once existed? I would bet that I could easily get a bat exterminator to come out with short notice to any home in the area.
I went to bed with Bean lying at my feet and the coyote still on my mind. We were both startled awake at 2:30 am when we heard our wounded coyote again. The sound of his erratic bark and howl is unmistakable. He found me, I thought.
I walked outside in the full moon light and searched again. Wandering around the neighborhood between mailboxes with huge American flags, I looked in the shadows for the coyote….but only caught glimpses of who I assumed was our limping coyote.
What have we done? What have we humans done? We inherited this beautiful planet. We were given incredible life all around us have chosen to cut ourselves off from it and lock ourselves up in our houses and cars and stop caring for it….. We were given these miraculous bodies and chose to cut ourselves off from them and stopped using them and caring for them.
I heard a wonderful speaker this past weekend who asked the audience if they would like the car of their dreams given to them free of charge. Everyone answered “yes”. He said there was one catch: This would be the only one you will have for the rest of your life. “How will you care for it?” he asked. Then he compared that car to our bodies. This is it. We don’t get another one. Rats make better choices than humans. Given the choice between healthy fruits and vegetables and junk food, they always choose the healthy foods. Humans are as evolved or intelligent. Given the choice to care for our bodies or not, most have opted to not care for them.
It is the same with this planet. This is it. This is the only one we will have for the rest of our lives. We are treating it like most of us are treating our bodies.
Now, from the bed, I hear the sound of the interstate but no coyote. Bean and I are not sleeping. We are staring out the window into the yellow glow of the streetlight with the full moon light mixed in…looking past the giant American flag on the mailbox… and hoping to see something more….
Friday:
Just got back from a long walk with Bean. An hour into our walk, the coyote showed up 15 feet to our right. I immediately sat down this time. The coyote didn’t move. Just stared at us. I got up and we walked a bit….the coyote shadowing us at about 15 feet away, still limping and unable to use the foot, but not seeming to be in as much pain. I stopped again and sat on the ground with Bean. The coyote came closer and curled up in the grass like a puppy. He closed his eyes and slept. I let him rest for quite a while by not moving at all. The mosquitos were so busy eating me and Bean that I think the coyote got to have a good snooze. When the coyote opened his eyes I got up and tried to approach him. If Bean had not been with me, he might have let me get close, but he got up and kept the 15 feet between us. I considered calling animal control for help. Then I realized that they would most likely either trap him to take him “who knows where”…or shoot him. And once I had called them, it would be out of my hands and out of the coyote’s paws. I decided to at least let him have his freedom in the forest preserve.
Our coyote buddy followed us to the highway again and sat and watched us leave. I turned around and watched him over the passing cars on the highway. He watched me just as closely.
Intimacy comes in so many forms. I am missing the coyote already. I know that there is some message in all this….I know that, one day, looking back I will understand more of what I am meant to take away from this powerful connection. For now, it is just another lesson in letting go. I don’t get to fix all the pain in the world. I don’t even get to fix the pain in this one little corner of the world for this one small beautiful being.
A terrible pipeline explosion tore through Nanjing, China, killing 13 people and injuring 300. News like that has become so commonplace that it’s almost hard to connect and understand the reality for those in that region. The news rarely, if ever, covers the suffering of non-humans.
This monkey saved the puppy from the explosion.
If anyone asks me why I work as a voice for other species instead of just working to help humans, and claims that other species are somehow less worthy than we humans, I want to show them this picture. Most humans would save themselves and get the heck out of there....
These are our forgotten relatives. These caring, feeling, thinking beings whom many of us still think are "things". They want nothing more than their own lives....They want freedom and family and friends and comfort. Just like us.
I have not been able to blog lately because I have been crazy busy with conferences and speaking and leading workshops. In between those, I have not had internet access.
I live with JC Corcoran, and our beautiful goofy rescue dogs,Bean and Bapu. We live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are busy veganizing Santa Fe and the world. I live to hike, bike, swim, rescue animals, and love being a voice for those species that human society has not learned to connect to and learn from.
To see more about us and our work, visit www.plantpeacedaily.org.
(Rae is the family blogster)
young JG
